Tom Ferguson, Army Sustainment Command lead instructor for the Green Belt course, discusses with students some of their project work April 30 in a classroom in the command's headquarters building at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill. (Photo by Jon Micheal...

Col. Darren Werner, ASC chief of staff, offers some advice to students at the Green Belt graduation ceremony in the Operations conference room May 2 at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill. Werner, who presented the graduation certificates, is the command's Lean...

Gene Wollum, Army Sustainment Command instructor, goes over information with Green Belt students April 30 in the Operations conference room at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill. (Photo by Jon Micheal Connor, ASC Public Affairs)

Tom Ferguson, Army Sustainment Command lead instructor for the Green Belt course, discusses with students some of their project work April 30 in a classroom in the command's headquarters building at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill. (Photo by Jon Micheal...

Students engage in serious discussion on their project two days before graduation held May 2. (Photo by Jon Micheal Connor, ASC Public Affairs)

Col. Darren Werner, ASC chief of staff, offers some advice to students at the Green Belt graduation ceremony in the Operations conference room May 2 at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill. Werner, who presented the graduation certificates, is the command's Lean...

ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. -- Seventeen people from the U.S. Army Sustainment Command here graduated May 2 from a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt class.

The two-week course is a systematic technique for improving processes. It follows the basic steps of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

The training teaches students the basic LSS systematic process and the various analysis and creative tools that can be used to improve processes.

The keys to the LSS technique's success is to critically analyze a process and develop alternatives to improve processes by removing non-value added steps and controlling variability in processes.

The Lean Six Sigma Class was led by ASC's Master Black Belt, Tom Ferguson. Other instructors included ASC's Gene Wollum and George Gray, LSS Black Belts.

The graduation ceremony was conducted by Col. Darren Werner, ASC chief of staff, who presented the graduation certificates.

Werner is the command's LSS deployment director. During the ceremony, he said all the students were honor graduates of the course.